Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Make A Difference

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

ParshasBereishis ends by
stating that human behavior had degenerated to the point that Hashem reconsidered
the creation of man. The parsha
concludes by saying that Noach found favor in the eyes of Hashem. Parshas Noach continues this theme by describing
Noach as a tzaddik tomim who walked
with Hashem.

The Torah states that Noach was
a tzaddik tomim in his generation. Rashi tells us that some interpret this posuk as laudatory of Noach and others
interpret it in a critical vein. The detractors say that had Noach lived in the
generation of Avrohom, he would not have counted for anything.

Since the Torah describes Noach
as a tzaddik and a tomim, why must we pounce on him and
minimize his greatness? Why can’t we take the posuk at face value? If the Torah states that the entire world except
for Noach had become defiled, isn’t that enough to establish his spiritual
grandeur? Does it really make a difference to us what level of greatness Noach
would have attained had he lived in the generation of Avrohom?

The world was about to be
destroyed, and the only people Hashem found worthy of being saved were Noach
and his family. The future of mankind would be perpetuated through them. They
must have been good and worthy people. If not, they would have been swept away
by the flood along with the rest of humanity. Why does Rashi interject that some looked upon Noach unfavorably?

It is often noted that Noach was
occupied with his own personal avodah
and didn’t seek to improve people around him.

Noach apparently felt that since
Hashem had already decided to bring the flood, it would be futile to chastise
his generation. The entirety of mankind of the generation in which he lived was
depraved and unredeemable. Why waste time ministering to them and trying to
assist them in rectifying their lives? There was clearly no interest. They had
developed theories and philosophies to rationalize their hedonistic behavior
and were not amenable to change.

Noach’s existence was quite
lonely. There were no people with whom he could carry on a conversation or take
walks.

“Es ha’Elokim hishalech Noach.”The humble tzaddik walked with
Hashem. It is commendable that Noach, who lived in a deplorable time without
role models or teachers to learn from and follow, raised himself to such a
degree that G-d would speak to him, quite a noteworthy achievement.

Yet, Rashi is quick to interject, “Ilu
haya bedoro shel Avrohom lo haya nechshav leklum.” Had the tzaddik Noach lived in the time of
Avrohom, he would not have been considered anything.

Noach’s self-contained,
self-oriented avodah would not have
been considered great in the time of Avrohom, because Avrohom showed that it is
possible to be a tzaddik, live among wayward
people, improve them, affect their behavior, and earn their respect. The posuk of “es hanefesh asher asu b’Choron” (Bereishis 12:5) attests that Avrom and Sorai had established a
following of people whom they influenced and brought “tachas kanfei haShechinah” (Rashi,
ibid.).

Additionally, Avrohom pleaded
with Hashem not to destroy the city of Sedom and its evil inhabitants. He never
gave up on anyone and never perceived any person as being beyond salvation.

There are various derochim in avodas Hashem. Noach’s was acceptable in his generation prior to
the birth of the derech of Avrohom. However,
once Avrohom showed that we are not to give up on anyone, that became the path
for his progeny to follow.

This is why Rashi takes pains to tell us that although Noach was a tzaddik tomim, we should not learn from
him. His way is not our way. As children of Avrohom, we must follow the path that
Avrohom Avinu hewed for us. We have to accept responsibility for those around
us who are confused and lost. We have to be able to rise above the moral
dissolution in which society attempts to drown us. We have to find the skills
and the intelligence to effectively reach out and touch people.

We have to care enough to find
the right words at the right time to let people know what they mean to us. If
we cared about G-dliness and goodness as much as Avrohom did, then we would try
as hard as he did to spread it in our world. We wouldn’t justify our inaction by
saying that the people we could sway are too far gone. Parents who suffer with
a child who has fallen under bad influences and is struggling with addiction
never give up. They never stop loving their child and desperately seek ways to
convey that love.

“Ilu haya bedoro shel Avrohom lo haya nechshav leklum.” Although
Noach was a tzaddik, found favor in
Hashem’s eyes, and was chosen to have the world rebuilt through him, once
Avrohom came on the scene, Noach’s greatness was eclipsed. It is now Avrohom’s
path - his actions and example - that we must emulate.

In our own day, when we witness
injustice and impropriety, we should not shirk the responsibility of
intelligently addressing the source of these lapses. When we see bizayon haTorah, it should shake us to
our core and we should not be too weak to express our indignation. Following
Avrohom’s example, we must be engaged with others, not withdrawn from them.

When we see people wronged, we
should not stand by apathetically. Rather, we should rise to the occasion. We
should imagine that it is our family being wronged. We should imagine that the
transgression took place in our teivah. We
should raise our voices and use our abilities to attempt to right the wrongs.

We mustn’t content ourselves by
only educating our children to follow in the path of the Torah and halacha. We have to at least attempt to
enroll more children into religious schools. We mustn’t say that we are
helpless to bring about change.

Why don’t we see full-fledged kiruv in this country as there is in
Israel and other places? How can it be that there are millions of Jews being
lost to our people and we don’t do anything about it?

Decades after Hitler diminished
the world’s Jewish population by at least six million, we are witness to the
loss of many more, yet we do nothing - or little - about it. Hundreds of
thousands of Jewish kids who could be convinced to attend Jewish schools grow
up oblivious to their heritage. We are glad when Reform temples close up shop and
merge due to dwindling numbers, without realizing that their demise is an
indication of more Jews being lost for eternity. Why the joy? At the very least,
we should be pained and at least attempt to work to stem the awful tide.

There are remarkable groups and
individuals who dedicate their lives to outreach and school placement, but
despite their heroic efforts, they can barely make a dent in solving the
problem. They need much wider communal support and concern in order to reach
appreciable numbers. We have to genuinely care about our Jewish brothers and
sisters and really want to save them from drifting from their heritage to
points of no return.

Noach was a great man.
Undoubtedly, it required superhuman strength to withstand the temptations of
his period. Certainly, he was outstanding in that he remained moral and honest
despite the corruption of his time. The posuk
testifies that Noach found favor - chein
- in the eyes of Hashem. And the Gemara
in Sukkah (49b) states axiomatically
that anyone who has chein also
possesses yiras Shomayim.

Yet, while Noach had yiras Shomayim and all of mankind is his
offspring, he is not referred to as av
hamon goyim, the father of the nations, although, in fact, everyone alive
is a descendent of his. That appellation is reserved for Avrohom Avinu, who
treated all of mankind as his children, as dwellers of his own ark, whom he was
responsible to care for and love. He didn’t mock them; he sought to raise them.
He touched their hearts, reached their souls, affected their psyches, and improved
them to the level that they joined his flock.

Avrohom went further than Noach.
Not only did he have yiras Shomayim, but
he was also the first to convert to Hashem’s service. The Gemara in Sukkah (ibid.) expounds on the posuk, “Am Elokei Avrohom - shehaya techilah l’goyim,” which Rashi explains to mean that he was the
first person in the world to convert.

Noach never took that step. He
didn’t go around trying to straighten out the people he lived with, and he wasn’t
mispallel for their salvation as Avrohom
was. Noach didn’t sit out in front of his tent waiting to bring them under the
canopy of G-d as Avrohom did.

“Ilu haya bedoro shel Avrohom lo haya nechshav leklum.”

Let us not excuse inaction by
contending that those around us are too far gone to merit our intervention. Let
us not minimize our talents and abilities. Let us find the right words of
reproach and outreach to express our love and determination, and may we merit for
our actions to be judged favorably by G-d and man.

Rav Shlomo of Karlin told his
students that following his passing, they should turn to the rebbe of Nishchiz for leadership and
direction.

Rav Uri of Strilisk followed Rav
Shlomo’s advice and made his way to Nishchiz. As he waited his turn, he watched
as a wealthy man was warmly received and blessed by the rebbe. Rav Uri was able to see that the man had recently committed
a serious sin. He was horrified that the man his rebbe had sent him to for guidance was so welcoming to an
evil-doer.

The rebbe of Nishchiz perceived Rav Uri’s anger and told him to
immediately leave the room. Quite embarrassed, he did as he was told and headed
for the local bais medrash.

A short time later, the rebbe arrived at the bais medrash. He went over to Rav Uri
and said to him, “I also know what you know. But do you know why Rav Shlomo
Karliner sent you here? It is so that you should learn that a person without
enough ahavas Yisroel to love a
sinning Jew hasn’t reached the proper level of avodas Hashem, for if you would treat people like him with love,
they can do teshuvah and return.”

The Jewish Week is happy this week, an indication that something is
wrong. Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, propagator of new roles for women in Orthodoxy, is
preparing to hand off leadership of his Ohr Torah Stone network of institutions
to Rabbi Kenneth Brander, a YU executive and former pulpit rabbi.

The Jewish Week reports, “The fact that he plans to head the Ohr
Torah Stone network could bolster the notion here that empowering women as
decisors of halacha, or Jewish law,
is more mainstream than fringe, and well within the bounds of Orthodoxy.”

The paper quotes Sharon
Weiss-Greenberg, president of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, who is
ecstatic over Riskin’s chosen successor. She remarked, “It is significant and
telling that one of the major rabbinic leaders of Yeshiva University, the
flagship of Modern/centrist Orthodoxy, will be heading an institution that
gives women semicha.”

She added, “If you choose to
write off Rabbi Brander’s appointment” at Ohr Torah Stone as not applicable to
American Orthodoxy, “you are blind to where Orthodoxy and amcha [the people] are. This is huge.”

The article mentions that the OU
organization of Orthodox synagogues is soon to vote on whether to expel from
its group shuls that employ women. Jonathan
Sarna, an oft-quoted Jewish expert, is trotted out. He says that “this is a
plastic moment for the Orthodox community in the U.S.” The Orthodox synagogue
group can take what he calls “the inclusive, big tent approach” or it can vote
to maintain “ideological purity, which could result in a split” within Orthodoxy.

“It’s not going to be easy,” he averred,
“for the OU to explain why Israel accepts Orthodox women leaders” and the U.S.
shouldn’t.

So now, the idea of Orthodox
women rabbis is perceived as a given. The only question is whether the OU will
face the facts or not.

We hate to say, “We told you
so,” but when Avi Weiss began ordaining female clergy several years ago and the
Yated undertook a lonely campaign
against him and his practice, we were castigated for writing about topics that
will never affect the majority of Orthodoxy. People said back then, and
continue to contend when we write of the dangers of Open Orthodoxy, that it is
a non-issue that does not and will not affect frum Jews.

We have proven that Open
Orthodoxy’s leaders are, in fact, not Orthodox, and have called for the rescinding
the semicha of Ysoscher Katz, Chair
of the Talmud Department at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and the director of the
Lindenbaum Center for Halakhic Studies.

We have written that the
deviating actions of Open Orthodoxy will affect all of Orthodoxy. Indeed, it is
coming to pass. An idea is born, then it is adopted, progressives swoon over
it, people are loath to protest lest they be seen as unenlightened, and slowly
it gains approval and becomes accepted. We see this with the moral climate of
this country and others, and sadly the same is true with the innovations of
Open Orthodoxy and people like Shlomo Riskin, who claims to be “Modern Orthodox.”

Sarna can say that in Israel
women are accepted as “leaders,” and it is accepted as fact. Riskin tells the
paper that women can be “spiritual leaders and have the right to give halachic directions and make halachic decisions.”

The Jewish Week says Riskin told them that “he has received no
negative reactions from Israeli gedolim
(Orthodox rabbinic sages) regarding his positions on women’s roles.” It is a ridiculous
assertion, but one that he gets away with. He knows the universal position of gedolim and Orthodoxy on the topic, and he
is well aware of the stated positions of the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical
Council of America, as well as the position of Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the
towering rabbinic figure of Modern Orthodoxy.

This issue is but one example of
the result of adopting a position of not getting involved in issues affecting
the larger community. There are many that come to mind. There is no one who is
beyond reach and there is no one who is beyond reproach. We have a
responsibility to be mochiach and set
the record straight as to the proper path our people should follow. We have an
obligation to other people. No one is ever that far gone that we give up on
them.

Like Avrohom Avinu, we are to
express concern for others, seek to return sinners to the tent of Torah, reach
out to wayward folks with love and care, and teach anyone who will listen the
ways of morality and goodness.

Never perceive any issue as
hopeless. View every person with merciful kindness, knowing that “betzelem Elokim bara osam,” there is
spirituality in every living soul.